It is a pleasant day in Davao City. The Consul General of the Indonesian Consulate, ConGen Berlian Napitupulu, has invited friends from the local media and social media to taste some food, witness and hear great things about Indonesia. The event, for me, is a realization and an envy.
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| ConGen Napitupulu with Ian Garcia at the Media Briefing |
Indonesia and the Philippines are both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Other countries included in the ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Timor Leste is also part of the Southeast Asia region but not yet part of the ASEAN, hopefully very soon. Aside from this group, which has celebrated a golden year last year, Indonesia and the Philippines are part of an economic cooperation known as Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area or BIMP-EAGA. Basically, the nearest ASEAN neighbors the Philippines has are from the BIMP. To exchange trades with them is really a very good way of getting along with our neighbors, especially with Indonesia, which is the largest economy in the region and among the top ten (10) largest economies in the world.
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First things first, the invitation is at lunch time, and the best way to experience Indonesian hospitality is served with some Indonesian dishes. They have served the 1) padang sauce shrimp, 2) famous beef rendang, 3) tumis mix vegetables, 4) chicken satai, 5) shrimp chips and 6) fruits. It is indeed a very wonderful start. It has some similarities with Filipino food and all yet delicious!
Aside from the lunch being served, there are some tasty, great and exotic snack items served to taste. Yes, there are variety of snack items like the pang-pang, ping-ping, teng-teng, ting-ting, tong-tong, salak, durian pancake, my fave teh tarik drink and passion fruit juice! It isn’t hard to memorize the names at all! :-p
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| Variety of snack items |
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| Salak and other snack items (sorry, I forgot the names) |
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| Teh Tarik |
Actually, I am marveled with the industries present in Indonesia. There’s a lot! Yes, a lot! There are many products from Indonesia that is in the Philippines right now that ranges from wellness and grooming products, food and beverage items, automobile, construction materials and many more. They have a number of industries that make their economy afloat and really one of the largest in the world. That’s one of the things I envy about Indonesia, I wish we have much industries like theirs. It is also a very inspiring thing that Indonesia is reaching out to neighboring countries like ours wherein they are pretty willing to impart their culture and expand their presence to connect more people from the Philippines to Indonesia and vice versa. ConGen Napitupulu has been proactive in doing so and with that, the Indonesian Consulate will be conducting a Food and Beverage Expo this coming June 2018 here in the city at a mall. Aside from that, their Trade Expo Indonesia on October 2018 invites business people to invest in Indonesia.
There’s more of Indonesia! Like the Philippines, Indonesia is an archipelago but they are the world’s largest group of islands. They have rich natural beauty and culture that is preserved and ready to face the world - like Medan! This is again a thing to emulate - preservation of rich culture to attract visitors.
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| Garuda at the Indonesian Consulate |
Indonesia may not be a huge English-speaking country, but they have managed their huge industries to be around the region and the globe. They may not be among the countries with top numbers of business process outsourcing companies, but they are among the top economies in the world. Yes, that’s Indonesia! We can learn from them and learn from each other. :-)
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